An educational summer adventure at Beacon College in Leesburg brought together 34 high school students with learning disabilities to get a taste of what college life is all about.
The students came from 14 states — one came from Ecuador — to attend the college’s Summer for Success program, a three-week immersion experience for high school juniors and seniors.
Beacon College is the first institution of its kind accredited to award bachelor’s degrees primarily to students who learn differently, including those diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.
The program paired core academics like math, communications skills and life skills with mindfulness training and stress reduction techniques, electives in digital video, car ownership basics, sculptural casting, food preparation, researching, science — even flying drones — into a condensed version of what they can expect from college life. The program first was introduced last year with students who traveled from Saudi Arabia.
Isabela Chavez, 17, came a long way from her Yuma, Ariz., home, but she said the three weeks at Beacon was a life-changing confidence booster as she prepares to enter her senior year in high school.
“They are so understanding of everyone here and gave all of us lots of good advice,” said Chavez, who has an auditory processing disorder. She plans to get a degree in child psychology and hopes to return to the college. “It is definitely my first choice. I made so many good friends here.”
Although their daily academic schedule kept the students busy, there was still time for excursions to area beaches and malls, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and the Central Florida Zoo. When not studying or at the on-campus pool, the students got to know each other at their nearby dorms, singing Karaoke and watching movies.
Although Conner Ezel, 18, was not far from his home in Sanford, he, too, wants to return to Beacon in hopes of becoming an animator.
“I have been drawing my whole life, and this experience was really valuable to show me what to expect in college,” he said.
Stephanie Knight, Beacon’s director of admissions, said the road to college is challenging for all high school graduates, but it’s much tougher for students with learning disabilities because they often haven’t taken a college preparatory curriculum. They have a harder time understanding and explaining their learning strengths and weaknesses, and they need support to persist in meeting their goal for a higher education.
What matters, Knight said, is that students with learning challenges need to assess a school for its “goodness of fit” before they commit to attending.
“Colleges and universities don’t offer refunds if a student is unsuccessful for any reason, and the unemployment and drop-out rates for students with disabilities is much higher than for their non-disabled counterparts,” she said.
With the Summer for Success program, George Hagerty, Beacon College president, said students are offered multiple learning tools so they can be successful in an undergraduate setting. The program exposes them to the strategies that they must master for their success. The college offers six bachelor-degree programs in studio art, business management, computer information systems, psychology, interdisciplinary studies and human services.
Samantha Resnick, 23, received her degree in May from Beacon College and was thrilled to work as a teacher’s assistant for the summer program.
“It was a great experience for me because I can take all that I learned with me for my future career,” said Resnick, who also was a peer tutor for three years at Beacon.
About 325 students are enrolled at Beacon College for the 2016-17 school year, up from 280 the prior year, and school officials report more than 83 percent graduate from one of its four year programs, and of those graduates, 83 percent are employed or pursuing graduate or continuing education.
Hagerty said the college strives to “reach a portion of the nation’s collegiate population who are marginally served by the majority of America’s colleges and universities that admit these students who learn differently.”
For more information about Beacon College, visit beaconcollege.edu.